SA banks move to reassure customers amid Experian data breach
African Bank has assured its customers that fraudsters will not be able to access any of their personal information amid a massive data breach at the South African arm of credit bureau Experian.
Experian is the world’s biggest credit data firm and generates credit reports and scores which are used by banks, car dealers and retailers.
African Bank chief risk officer Piet Swanepoel says although the breach of personal information does impact customers, it does not affect banking details.
“This breach of personal information does impact our credit customers because we have to, by law, disclose all details of customers who have credit with us to three credit bureaus, one of which is the Experian credit bureau.
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“Of importance is that our customer’s banking credentials have not been breached, so fraudsters will not be able to access any of our customers’ banking details.”
Meanwhile First National Bank (FNB) says it is working with law enforcement and regulatory authorities to mitigate any potential risks.
We are working with The South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric), The Banking Association of South Africa (Basa), law enforcement and regulatory authorities to mitigate any potential risks on our customers as a result of the incident.
“Customers are advised to be extra vigilant and follow our recommended security precautions, which can be found on Security Centre on the FNB App and Online Banking.”
It's estimated that 24 million South Africans and close to 800 000 businesses have been affected by the security breach.
